Thoughts on Suzuki piano?

I'm a violin/viola teacher who uses the Suzuki books, but I also teach piano. With piano students, I do start them with the first Suzuki book and also the "Teaching Little Fingers to Play" but after the Little Fingers book I use the Faber books.

I use three of each series: the Performance book, the Technique book and the Lesson book. You wouldn't need the Primer level; start with Level 1. See:

http://beststudentviolins.com/sheetmusic.html#Fabe...

If you're seriously at a college with a music program that doesn't even have any string teachers...you might want to consider going to a better program! But yeah, trying to learn a classical instrument without a teacher is a very bad idea. When I started cello in middle school, I had no teacher and just practiced whatever we needed for school. But when I managed to get into a performing arts high school and started to take lessons...kinda learned the hard way that trying to teach yourself is a very good way to learn bad habits! :P If there aren't any violin teachers in your area, try seeing if you can find a teacher from another area that does skype lessons. They aren't exactly the same as a face to face lesson, but definitely a LOT better than trying to teach yourself. If you absolutely have to have a "real" lesson...I guess the fiddle teacher is your only choice. Hope they are actually qualified to teach and not some joker deciding they can teach since they took lessons as a kid!